At Fox Run Golf Club in St. Louis, Missouri, the Chargers put together a few consistent rounds and placed sixth at the difficult Fox Run Golf Club. Sixteen teams competed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis Championship Monday and Tuesday, and the Chargers’ 598 fell a little short of Lindenwood University’s winning score of 577.
Freshman Josh Davenport posted a one-over-par 145, which was the low score for Hillsdale and tied-fourth in the tournament. Coming in behind him were freshman Logan Anuszkiewicz and senior Ryan Zetwick with six-over-par 150s. Seniors Liam Purslowe shot nine-over par 153 and Andy Grayson finished three strokes back at 156.
Grayson’s first round 80 was the only round outside of the 70’s, but overall the team had to fight its way up the leaderboard on the second day.
“We put ourselves in a hole after the front nine on Monday,” Grayson said. “While we did fight back, which was good, it was just too much to overcome”
A disappointing start could be attributed to the tough weather conditions. After a rainy weekend, the course lengthened as the balls stopped rolling as far in the fairways. Davenport said the course was “very wet,” which meant the course “played longer than expected.”
A consequence of a longer course is less scoring on par 5s, traditionally scoring holes for talented golfers. Having longer clubs in to greens that are already difficult to hit allows fewer opportunities for birdies. How the Chargers played par 5’s compared to last week frustrated Grayson, he said.
“The biggest difference from the GMAC was that we didn’t play the par 5s as well and made too many big numbers to stay in contention,” he said.
Looking ahead, Grayson said he is expecting precision to be a big factor at next week’s tournament at the Tournament Players Club in Dearborn, Michigan.
“There are a lot more hazards out there so it’s going to be very important to keep the ball in play to keep the big numbers off the card,” he said.
He also expects the colder weather to throw an added variable into the mix, though he said this can be managed by the team.
“Figuring out distances of clubs will be a big challenge,” Grayson said, but also added, “Our team is a bunch of good ball strikers and those are the types of players that can play well at TPC courses.”
